Things can get pricy pretty quickly in Copenhagen, but you can still grab some wheels for free. The city’s free bike program, called “Bycyklen Kobenhavn,” was a pioneer in the urban bike program phenomenon. The city provides 1,300 free bicycles to anyone to zip around the city center.

The program is popular with visitors and residents alike, doubles as a rehabilitation program for locals, and is environmentally progressive. (The city even gave a city bike to Bill Clinton, when he visited in 1997.) In short, the program is just another example of why the Danes are so cool.

It’s a straight-forward system:

1) Find your way to one of the city’s 125 bike parking areas. They’re all located in the city center.

2) Leave a small deposit (a DKK 20 coin, worth about $3) and ride off with your bike.

3) Stay in the city center. The bikes are easy to identify, and you might get some looks if you’re outside the central zone. According to the official website, “If you ride on a city bike outside the zone, you might get fined by the police.” Also, remember not to ride on any of the city’s pedestrian-only streets (you can walk the bike, however).

4) When you’re finished, return the bike to one of the 125 bike parking areas, whereupon you’ll get back your deposit.

The free-bike zone.

For more information on the program, visit the city’s official website for the free bike program.

So simple.

Popularity: 12% [?]

It’s been over a year since this Cheapo has been in Paris, and since I arrived on Thursday with my fellow Cheapo (and wife), Meredith, I’ve been surprised by two very noticeable changes: 1. Smokeless cafes and restaurants 2. Nifty bike rentals appearing on many, many street corners.

I’ll save commentary about smokeless cafes for a later post. Coming from a relatively recently smoke-free New York City, it’s more or less a similar effect, although seeing the bustling cafes of Saint-Germain des Pres without piles of Gauloises Blondes stacked on tables seems a little, well, weird. That said, customers are allowed - perhaps even encouraged - to smoke at outdoor tables, so maybe the change isn’t really that big of a deal.

As for Paris’ “Velib” bike rental program, though, there is no question it’s a city-wide success. Initially I thought the program would be more of a tourist draw and envisioned mobs of backpackers with Let’s Go guides doing wheelies down the Champs-Elysees, but such is not the case (especially because the bikes weigh about 50 pounds, making wheelies quite a feat to perform.) We’ve seen Parisians riding solo, groups of teenagers, businessmen heading to work, packs of friends coasting at low speeds, as well as many out of towners enjoying a ride. The late night post-bar bike scene has been particularly entertaining to observe, although I think some thought should be given to providing discounted helmets as well.

The Velib program is financed by the French advertising company JC Decaux and is managed by little ATM-ish kiosks next to each bike rental station, where passes can be purchased for a day, a week, a month or a year. Bikes can be found in clusters of 20 - 40 on many corners across Paris - they’re everywhere, especially in central Paris. The bikes are locked to a small pedastal that unlocks once a customer swipes a bike card and off they go! Bikes can be returned to the same rental stations or any of the others throughout the city, and the first 30 minutes are free.

As for the bikes themselves, they look like a Parisian version of Pee-Wee Herman’s bike: gray, somewhat bulky, super fat “I could ride over a thousand nails and not care” tires, basket and a little bell. In other words: perfect.

Now if only they could make a tandem rental with a luggage trolley to get us to the airport tomorrow morning….

Popularity: 12% [?]

Amsterdam is one of the best European cities for cycling. See the city, speed along the canals, and act like a local.

Ready to roll? First, grab a good map. The tourism office facing Centraal Station offers a bike-specific map with highlighted biking paths and touring suggestions.

Then, go get a bike! Where?

Mike’s Bike Tours
Kerkstraat 134

One of the most popular bike rentals in Amsterdam, Mike’s (along with other rental agencies) requires you to leave some sort of deposit when you rent a bike:  your passport, an imprint of your credit card, or a deposit of €200. They provide you with two bike locks, and will even demonstrate how to use them!

(A word of caution: Mike’s also has a location in Munich and it can be a bit tricky to navigate their web site, so if you decide to book online, make sure you’re on the Mike’s Amsterdam page!)

Rates - 1/2 day: €5 (€8 with insurance); 1 day: €7 (€10 with insurance).

Frederic Rental Bike
Brouwerstgracht, 78

All bikes go for €10 a day (no hourly rentals) and Frederic requires a deposit of either a credit card or passport. Insurance is included in the price.

The advantages of renting from Frederic are simple: It’s cheap, you don’t have to deposit any money, and the bikes are free of giant logos that make them look like dorky, commercial rental bikes. These bikes are “originals,” and thus great for cycling hipsters. Also, Frederic’s staff claims they are “gastronomical freaks” and will fill you with their culinary expertise before you speed off.  While we don’t recommend eating your meals on wheels, you’ll at least now the best places to stop for a meal.

Canal Bike
Weteringschans 26- 1 hg

Ok, so this isn’t a traditional bike company. Canal Bike only rents “canal bikes,” which are pedal boats for two, three, and four people. With pedal boats, you’re free to tour the city via its famous waterways. Canal Bike holds onto a €50 deposit due at the time of your booking. Dock your boat at the Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank House, or countless other city attractions.

Rate - €8 per person for 1-2 people;  €7 per person for more than 2 people.

Mac Bike
Multiple locations around the city

If you’re making a group booking (10 people or more), we think Mac is the best plan of attack. They offer great rental discounts and even lead some of the most unique tours in town, grouped by interest (gay, architecture, even Hans Brinker).

Rates - From €6 (3 hours) to €25 (1 day), depending on type of bike and length of rental.

Bike City
68 - 70 Bloemgracht

Bike City is great if you plan to rent for more than a day. They offer really reasonable 5-day rates (€34-44.50) and prices are significantly reduced if you rent for more than 5 days.

Rates - €10-14.50 per 24 hour period.

Note: Prices are shown for half-day and full-day rentals, although multiple day rentals are available through most bike agencies.  A half-day rental makes sense for a fun tour of the town, although real cycle nuts (we see that Lance Armstrong bracelet!) and tourists looking to use their bike for daily transportation will want a longer rental.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Denmark, home to Hans Christian Andersen and all those friendly, tall—and it must be said—great Danes, was recently proclaimed the happiest place on earth. In a number of population studies, pollsters asked residents to rate their level of happiness and other factors, and it seems the Danes have a real twist for felicity.

All this happiness, in spite of high taxes and hefty price tags? After all, according to the Big Mac Index, a Happy Meal must cost at least $5 in Copenhagen! Yet we agree: Denmark is a happy (and happening) place!

Here are five of our favorite and free ways to boost your serotonin in Copenhagen:

1) Get cultured

In 2006, the National Museum and the Statens Museum of Kunst became free to the public. And, every Wednesday, a number of other major museums and galleries open their doors without a charge. We suggest the Tøjhusmuseet, where the relics of the Royal Danish Arsenal are housed, and the Hirschsprungske and Ordrupgaard Collections, two museums with some of the best French and Danish art from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. For more info and to browse current exhibitions, go to the Copenhagen Tourism’s art museum page.

2) Park yourself

Copenhagen has some of the most expansive and pretty parks in Europe. Retreats like Orsteds Park, Frederiksberg Garden or Vondelpark are free to enter and stroll. Both have incredible sculptures and fountains and a host of traveling street performers. We also recommend the Botanical Gardens.

3) Get thee to church

Seriously, not only are Copenhagen’s many religious establishments architectural marvels, but they’re free to visit, and often host free concerts. Some charge a nominal fee for truly spectacular shows, like the Danish boys choir Christmas concert at the Church of Our Lady (Vor Frue Kirke), founded in 1209.

4) Grab a bike without paying

Yes, it’s that easy. You see a bike. You need a bike? You take the bike and ride it. A minimal deposit (about $3) gets returned when you bring the bike back to any number of designated spots. The promotion runs annually from May 1st to December 15th. More info can be found here.

5) See the statues

Go for a walk near the Copenhagen harbor, and spend some time gazing at the Little Mermaid. (She can’t charge you a krone to check out her scales.) Near City Hall, visit with Hans Christian Andersen. Later, walk the stone path at the Thorvaldsens museum in Slotsholmen.

Whatever you do, take lots of photos… or take brochures. After all, they’re free!

Popularity: 11% [?]

photograph courtesy of Josh Clark on FlickrParis Runners

Visiting Paris as a tourist usually means long days of hiking across town, climbing steps, and carrying a backpack. With so much physical activity, you can just forget about the need to hit the gym, right? 

Well, for us it also means days that begin with a butter croissant (268 calories) and end with a creme caramel (759 calories). In between the two — well, let’s not go there. After about a week, no matter how much you’re walking, one can start feeling the pastries.

What’s a Cheapo to do? We’ve tried a number of strategies, but they usually amount to very little (read: Semi-distracted push-ups on the hotel room floor while watching CNN International). There must be a better way to stay in shape, raise your pulse, and sweat off some of those delicious sauces.

Here are five cheapo ways to stay in shape in Paris:

1) Run

It sounds obvious, but if you’re a runner, pack your running shoes when you’re visiting Paris. If your hotel is located anywhere near the Seine, a morning or evening run along the river is a must. 

Every Sunday, the city’s “Paris Respire” (Paris Breathes) program closes traffic along the banks of the Seine to automobiles from 9 AM to 5 PM, offering the perfect spot for running, walking, or cycling.

2) Bike

The city-run Vélib’ public bike program allows short-term subscriptions (one-week passes: €5, one-day passes: €1). More than 10,000 cute bikes are available at 750 kiosks around town for 30-minute free rentals. Sign up, grab a cycle, and head for one of the many bike lanes. If you want a better workout, stay on the bike for an hour and you’ll only be charged €1. (more pricing info)

If you’re up for a Friday night adventure, join the “Paris Rando Vélo” group for a free group ride through the streets of Paris. The cycling group meets at the Hotel de Ville at 9:30 PM every Friday night, and on the third Sunday morning of the month at 10:30 AM. 

3) Rollerblade

Every Friday night, 12,000-15,000 rollerbladers hit the streets of Paris for a 3-hour speed skate through the city, escorted by the police department. The weekly event is not intended for beginners, as the massive group rolls over all manner of road surface, including cobblestones (yikes).

A more relaxed skating tour, the “Roller Rally“ leaves every Sunday afternoon from the Place de la Bastille at 2 PM. Rollerblade rentals are available at Roulez Champions, 5 rue Humblot (Arr 15), Metro: Dupleix (01 40 58 12 22).

4) Take an aerobics or yoga class

The American Church in Paris offers daily one-hour aerobics classes open to the public featuring a different focus every night. Classes are €10 each or €72 for 8 sessions. More information is available here.

Yoga classes are held all over Paris on every day of the week. Check out the extensive list of yoga classes on the AngloInfo website.

5) Go to the gym

The gym craze is just beginning to hit Paris (we’ve heard that several gyms are even getting rid of their smoking sections…). While most chains require expensive memberships that are not practical for most travelers, certain gyms do allow single admissions. Among them:

The Body Gym, 157, rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine near the Bastille. (€16 single entrance).

Club Quartier Latin, 19 rue de Pontoise in the Latin Quarter (€19 single entrance). 

Find more gyms, classes, and fitness ideas on the Paris Fitness website.

Popularity: 6% [?]

We were pleased to see that Eric Rayman at the New York Times recently arrived in Paris and immediately hopped on a Vélib’ bike rental. In yesterday’s travel section, Rayman describes the joys of pedaling down the Boulevard St-Germain (and the terrors of biking through Place de la Concorde).

We’ve been big Vélib’ fans since it was launched this spring by popular socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoë, and have even eyed it with envy (especially one Cheapo in this office, who bikes his way through lower Manhattan every morning, along streets that are decidedly unfriendly to cyclists). The program has put 15,000 bikes on the streets of Paris, available for short-term rental for almost nothing from more than 1,000 hop-on and drop-off stations.

BudgetTravel.com pointed out in a post this summer that many Americans were unable to rent bikes from the Vélib’ program, as the kiosks were only programmed to accept credit cards with “smart chips,” which are the norm in Europe. Rayman notes that the machines now accept American Express cards issued in the US, a sign, perhaps, of a “warming of Franco-American relations.”

Consider us warmed!

See also: Vélib official site.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Visiting Barcelona? Watch out for Woody:

The BBC reported Monday that the city of Barcelona is coughing up € 1,000,000 to Woody Allen, covering 10% of the budget of his upcoming film, which is set in the city and currently filming around town. In addition, the regional Catalonian government is chipping in another € 500,000.

Residents are annoyed with the amount of public funds going to the project (75% polled found the contribution “excessive”). Locals and tourists are annoyed by some shut-downs around town: the Ramblas was recently closed for filming. And Barcelona filmmakers are annoyed that the government isn’t willing to donate the same amount to cash to local directors.

But there’s an upside: Who wouldn’t want to sneak a peak at the lovely Scarlett Johansson, and Spanish stars Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. And the film is likely to be good for the city’s tourism industry, as Allen promises the movie to be a “love letter to Barcelona.” Barcelona Mayor Jordi Hereu insists, “It’s a huge advertisement for the city that will be seen all over the world.”

More on this: BBC news, The Guardian, UPI

Meanwhile, we can’t get enough of the city-sponsored bike program movement sweeping through Europe. We’ve posted about Paris (a couple of times). Barcelona launched their own modest program back in March and has been steadily increasing the number of bikes accessible to would-be riders. Earlier this month, the city increased the number of cycles to 1,500 available at 100 stations throughout the city.

Now, Barcelona plans to double both those numbers–aiming to get 3,000 public bikes available at 200 pick-up stations by the end of 2007. So far, 80,000 eager cyclists have signed up for the program, far exceeding the 15,000 riders projected by city planners.

The bike program costs € 24 a year to join, but allows for an unlimited number of free 30-minute rides (and 30 cents per half hour thereafter).

Popularity: 10% [?]

There’s been a lot of buzz about Paris’ new city-wide bike push that put over 10,000 bikes on the street for rent (read our earlier post). According to the plan, anyone with a credit card can join the program, which lends bikes for 30-minute treks for almost nothing (membership in the program costs as low as $44 a year).

Budget Travel’s blog on Wednesday pointed out a serious problem for Americans ready to hop on a bike: The rental kiosks, it turns out, only take European micro-chipped enhanced credit cards.

As US tourists in France usually find out early in their trip, American credit cards are not equipped with the little microchip that makes French cards tick. This sometimes, but not always, causes trouble when swiping at a restaurant, in a store, or even (our personal favorite) in a Metro station. Now it’s at it again, jamming the bike rental process. ARGH!

We are hopeful that Mayor Delanoë will remedy this “chip” issue as soon as possible, so our people can get pedaling! (Or, perhaps, we should be begging our American banks to equip our cards with the chips?) While he’s at it, fix those pesky Metro machines, which accept only bechipped cards or coins! (Many stations don’t have live agents selling tickets and passes, either, leading to some very confusing and maddening situations.)

Some bright news, however:

For those with chips on their cards, the bike plan seems to be a smashing success. The LA Times’ Marjorie Miller wrote Monday that it’s almost a victim of its own success, as potential riders often show up at bike stations only to find all the bikes already rented. Some taxi drivers also seem to be “over” the new onslaught of bikers, driving close to our 3-speed pioneers.

Meanwhile, Serge Schmemann writes in yesterday’s New York Times that Paris is wonderful by bus, bike, train… about anything other than a car. He thinks other big city mayors should study the way Paris made city driving hard, while introducing easier, cheaper, and faster public transportation.

We agree. Other big cities could learn some things from Paris — and New York is getting serious about making life more difficult (and expensive) for drivers. Just Paris, take our cards, please!

Popularity: 5% [?]

Paris’ cool (and green) mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, just got even cooler (and greener) when he launched Vélib’, a massive public biking initiative on Sunday.

Under the plan, bikers may borrow a bike from one of 750 pick-up spots around town and drop it off at any other center within 30 minutes. (If you need more time to get there, you’re charged by the half hour thereafter.) Joining the program is super cheap: €1 a day, € 5 a week, or €29 a year.

The intention is to get more people biking, and do something about congestion in the city center. Bravo!

We liked Katrin Bennhold’s piece in the International Herald Tribune. (It also appeared with a couple of edits in yesterday’s NY Times.)

Popularity: 5% [?]

Photo by supermonkey_pekin

While Barcelona’s underground train system reaches just about every corner of the sprawling metropolis, the metro isn’t really the best way to “see” the city.

The Catalan capital’s new Bici bike system, however, is just that. Barcelona’s city hall has set up about 100 stations across the city, most near the Barri Gòtic, offering bike rentals for close to nothing. After paying an initial fee of either €1 for a week’s membership—or €24 for a year’s membership—Bici users will pay have to cough up just €0.30 per half hour of bike use. Until July 6, a year’s membership will go for just €6.

For a list of rules, rates, and information, visit the club’s site (in Spanish and Catalan only.)

Popularity: 12% [?]